Howie: Hold the line, Roger. And council, don’t flinch.

DULUTH — Mayor Roger Reinert says the city is facing a $7.2 million budget shortfall heading into 2026. But instead of immediately lunging for the property tax lever — as has been Duluth’s default setting for far too long — he’s hinting at a different approach.

“We're not just going to go to the property tax levy for that,” Reinert told me Tuesday afternoon, emphasizing a return to basics. “This is going to be our opportunity to really focus on core city services — those things only Duluth does, that no one else is going to do for us.”

Let’s hope he means it. Because Duluth taxpayers aren’t just tired — they’re bruised and battered after eight straight years of relentless budget expansion and nearly unprecedented property tax hikes.

During the previous administration, the city’s general fund budget ballooned by more than 50 percent. Meanwhile, the property tax levy — the one that actually hits homeowners in the wallet — nearly doubled. That’s right: a staggering, near 100-percent increase since 2015. Try pulling off that kind of growth in your household budget and see how long it takes before the bank calls.

The result? A city that now pays more for basic services, yet still struggles with potholes, plow routes, and public safety staffing. The old formula was simple: raise taxes, spend more, repeat. And it worked — for a while. Until taxpayers finally started shouting, “Enough!”

Reinert, to his credit, seems to be hearing them.

Next week, city departments will begin presenting their budgets, and if there was ever a time to bring a red pen instead of a rubber stamp, this is it. No more bloated initiatives. No more vanity projects. No more feel-good spending sprees with someone else’s money. It’s time for every department to defend every dollar.

Because Duluth doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending addiction — one enabled for years by a City Council that rarely met a levy increase it didn’t like. That can’t happen again. Not this year. Not with seniors being priced out of their homes and young families quietly fleeing to townships where the tax bills don’t come with a side of condescension.

This is Reinert’s first real budget test. He ran on restoring trust and fiscal sanity — not continuing the old tax-and-spend tradition that ballooned the budget but left residents wondering what they actually got in return.

So here’s the message, plain and straightforward: Mayor, hold the line. Councilors, don’t flinch.

Not another dime from Duluth homeowners.

Tighten the belt, make the cuts, and prove to this city — finally — that good government doesn’t always mean more government.

Note: Howie served on the Duluth City Council for four years and has covered local news and sports since 1973.